I'm sorry, but I've been pretty obsessed the past few days with the right wing blogs that continue to spew this 1.5 - 2 million garbage for the protests. I know that they don't deserve any time, but it's really fun when you realize they finally get it...and of course stop commenting/posting (they would never admit it).

Anyway, I could not find a single clear picture of an empty Mall, until now:

Notice the big blue buses in the background? They're parked on 3rd St. All of that stuff in the background (and most likely the people walking up and down the Mall paths) is associated with the Black Family Reunion, which was taking place from 7th to the Washington Monument (betcha didn't know that! Talk about being ignored by the media).

I know that not many will care, but if there are any others obsessed with this, here is a tool to use.

There are more pictures that actually show people on the sides of the Capitol. There were legitimately a lot of people there.

I have known all along that there weren't that many people beyond the reflecting pool because I was down there, on the side path of the Mall (I live in DC and I just had to see it, but I couldn't bring myself to cross 3rd St).

Incidentally, this also explains all of those "comparison" pictures the wingers are showing of 9/12 and the inauguration. Of course the Mall (which is depicted in their picture) is litter-free; NONE OF THEM WERE ON THE MALL.

I'm still sticking by my roughly 70,000 estimate. There was a lot of hate down there that day, make no mistake.

In DC, there was no impact whatsoever on Saturday, I guess unless you were trying to drive down Penn Ave to the Capitol, or something. We were out of there by 2pm, with no problems on Metro.

Really funny story: a friend of mine came over to my house to watch a football game that night. He got on the Red Line at Dupont at 4pm and came all the way to Silver Spring (for those that don't know, that trip takes you right through downtown). He made it in his usual time (well, usual time plus the Fort Totten delays, of course). In fact, he had forgotten about the protest until he saw some of the poor souls on the train. He said the trains were pretty full, but it wasn't Tokyo rush hour stuff or anything.

Inauguration crippled DC. So much so that while I was very, very happy, I'll admit I was a little put off. People were EVERYWHERE.

It doesn't matter how many people were there. Obama won the election and will be president for the next 3 years. If he does a good job you can add 4 more on to that. This election wasn't even close, not in the popular vote or in the electoral college. But there were 59 million people who didn't vote for him and some of them will be in our face as long as Obama is President. It doesn't change the fact that they still lost.

Many more marched against the Iraq War and it didn't matter. In the words of Dick Cheney, "So?"

So back at them with "SO?" even if they claim 10 million people marched against Obama. Well, 69 million voted for him and that's what counts. These teaparties are just a side show.

Here's something I was messing around with after Inauguration Day. Notice that the block of the mall I chose to compare is empty in the OP's picture. My initial guess is that the Inauguration was at least ten times larger than this event.

There is a damned good reason to deflate the erroneous claims of the right-wing protesters. Most of them have a mental pathology which requires them to believe they are part of a majority of like-minded individuals. (Remember that "we are a Christian nation" bullshit just after the election? That's part of it, too.) Once they firmly believe they are the majority, they then turn their attention to being hostile to everyone who isn't. Racism is part of it, but it's really more about hiding in the safety of numbers.

If one can make them feel like they are a minority themselves, they will be motivated to change the way they think, if only so they can feel less frightened. We need them to do that. They need to do that, because currently they're being hoodwinked by their fascist leaders and support an agenda that is clearly not in their best interests, or ours. And, slapping them in the face with the wet scrod of truth once in awhile forces them to see the world a little more as it is, rather than the fantasy land in which they wish they were living.

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